Rogue One Video: The Evolution of the Death Trooper

It seems that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story scarcely left theaters before we were hit with a barrage of behind-the-scenes information about the film and its evolution. Part of that is likely due to fans being hungry for any knowledge surrounding the franchise given how tight-lipped Lucasfilm has been about this year’s The Last Jedi. There’s also the home video release of Rogue One, which is right around the corner and will offer a whole lot of bonus features for die-hards. Of course, as is standard procedure nowadays, many of those extras have already popped up online.

So far, we’ve seen a whole batch of videos breaking down the impressive visual effects from the film. In one, we learned how the team crashed two Star Destroyers together, while another showed the evolution of Scarif and Jedha. Most intriguing of all, we got a look behind the curtain to see how the crew brought Grand Moff Tarkin back to life for Rogue One. Part of the excitement of the film was seeing so many new elements of the Star Wars universe, but the challenge throughout was to keep things consistent with the films we’ve previously seen.

Moviefone has released yet another bonus feature from the Rogue One Blu-ray, this one detailing the evolution of the new Death Troopers. In it, the costume designers explain how they took some old sketches from Ralph McQuarrie of a more streamlined Stormtrooper and used it to create their galactic SWAT team for the film. McQuarrie, of course, is the man behind many of the original character and location designs in the Star Wars universe. This isn’t the first time the new canon has borrowed from his work, either, as many of the heroes on Rebels are based off of McQuarrie’s original concept for the protagonists of A New Hope. While the video doesn’t say which Stormtrooper designs served as inspiration, it’s likely from a batch McQuarrie did featuring less-bulky Troopers that are compiled below:

Even the individual fates of various characters shifted multiple times. We learned earlier this week that Darth Vader was originally going to kill Krennic. Just yesterday, we heard that in another version, Krennic was going to kill K-2SO. While each of the possible endings would have no doubt been interesting, it’s hard to argue with how effective the finale we got was. Equal parts exhilarating and heartbreaking, it helped to let the film stand on its own. That said, we won’t be the least bit surprised if tomorrow brings a story of a new possible ending for the film.